Sperm Count: Talk Dirty to Me

Have you ever talked dirty to someone who reacted to you the way the actress (Liv Ullmann) did to the nurse (Bibi Andersson) at the beginning of Bergman's Persona? If you remember the actress refuses to respond to the nurse's garrulous banter which eventually results in the nurse herself having psychotic break in which the tables are dramatically turned. Indifference is actually worse than pure hostility. It's a denial of one's being. But under the theory Bergman proposes the solution lies in just giving the offending party a dose of their own medicine. Persona creates the perfect palette to work from, in fact, for anyone who feels they're being unjustly ignored. Whether you're trying to talk dirty or you're just plain needy, the great Swedish director demonstrated that if you keep your mouth shut, you'll find that the object of your interest will coming back to you for more. Dirty talk is not always a quid pro quo. With some people you have to light the fire then play hard to get. However what comes next is enough to burn a hole in your soul. You will be hit with a level of salacious language you haven't even dreamt of and so much of it that you'll feel the way some people do when their clogged up toilets overflow, leaving puddles of shit everywhere.

{This was originally posted to The Screaming Pope, Francis Levy's blog of rants and reactions to contemporary politics, art and culture}